(copyright)Copyright. 1997. Clinton E. Sheppard and Donald R. McCombes. All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material.
However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the owner of the copyright rights has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
A present invention relates to the field of systems, apparatus, and processes used to quickly determine if the holder of certain information (e.g., a driver""s license) is of sufficient age to purchase a restricted product (e.g., alcohol, tobacco products, sexually oriented magazines), to attend a restricted event (e.g., a movie, a rock concert, or a topless club), to participate in a certain activity (e.g., rent a car), or to receive age based discounts (e.g., senior citizen discounts).
The protection of our youth from certain evils is an ever-present societal concern. For instance, under-age drinking and consumption of tobacco products has become a major problem over the past several years. Minimum age limits are routinely adopted and established by the local, state, and federal governments to prevent underage people from purchasing certain products (e.g., tobacco and alcohol), attending certain events (e.g., movies, a rock concert, or a topless club), participating in a certain activity (e.g., rent a car), or to receive an age based discount (e.g., senior citizen discounts). Businesses providing these products and discounts or conducting these events must enforce the age restrictions or face serious legal consequences. Unfortunately, however, the enforcement process has been difficult to implement, because, in part, it must be enforced by each sales clerk or attendant at each theater, topless club, convenience store, grocery store, bar, liquor store, etc. throughout the country. These people are currently required to compute a person""s age from information provided on a driver""s license (or similar form of identification) and then compare the person""s age to the age set by the government that allows one to drink alcohol products, consume tobacco products, see a movie, enter a topless club, receive a discount, etc. While helping other customers, these sales clerks or attendants are often required to quickly compute the age of the customer without the help of a pencil and paper, much less a calculator. Moreover, this process is further complicated by the fact that the minimum age to purchase alcohol is often different from the minimum age to purchase cigarettes, the minimum age to attend a restricted movie, and the minimum age to receive a discount. Furthermore, the minimum age for each of these activities varies throughout the country. In view of the above circumstances, it is not surprising that these sales clerks and/or attendants sometimes make mistakes. And, if an underage person illegally buys alcohol and has a car wreck injuring himself and/or others, these errors can be disastrous to the sales clerk and/or attendant and the owner and operator of the business as well as to the person that the laws establishing the minimum age were intended to protect.
Preferred systems, apparatus, and processes determine whether a person is authorized on a specific day to purchase restricted products, such as alcohol or tobacco products, to attend restricted events, such as a movie, a strip tease act, to participate in a certain activity and/or to receive certain discounts, such as senior citizen discounts. At the moment, a significant number of states issue driver""s licenses having a magnetic strip with information about the driver contained thereon, such as the driver""s name, the driver""s birth date, the driver""s driver number, the driver""s address, etc. Preferred embodiments read this information from the magnetic strip, compute the driver""s age, compare the driver""s age to minimum ages established by local, state, and federal governments to purchase certain restricted products or to attend certain restricted events, and notifies the operator whether the driver is old enough to purchase the restricted products or to attend certain restricted events.
Specifically, preferred processes are generally comprised of the following steps: (a) inputting the date of birth of the person; (b) computing the age; (c) comparing the age to a standard age to determine whether the person is authorized or not; and (d) notifying or informing an operator whether or not a person is authorized. In particular, the date of birth is often inputted by magnetically reading the date of birth from a magnetic strip on some sort of an identification document (e.g., the person""s driver""s license). Alternatively, the date of birth could be manually entered. The standard age establishes a minimum age to purchase alcohol products and tobacco products, to attend a strip tease act or a movie, or to receive certain discounts. The age is generally computed by comparing the date of birth to the date of inquiry (e.g., today""s date). Once the age is computed, the age is compared to the standard age by determining whether the age is less than the standard age or greater than or equal to the standard age. The operator can be notified by outputting the information to a display (e.g., a Liquid Crystal Display), lighting one or more lights, or emitting certain sound or sounds.
Preferred apparatus are generally comprised of a input device, a microprocessor controller, a warning device and/or a display mechanism. The input device, warning device and/or display mechanism are electrically coupled to the microprocessor controller. A magnetic reader is preferably used to read the date of birth (and any other additional information) from the magnetic strip attached to a person""s identification card or document, such as a driver""s license. The date of birth and other information is preferably encoded in the magnetic strip. The microprocessor controller is programmed to receive the date of birth and to compute the age of the person by comparing the date of birth to the date of inquiry (e.g., today""s date), which is supplied to the microprocessor controller. For instance, the date of inquiry can be supplied to the microprocessor controller with a series of control switches. The date of inquiry can be stored along with the program operating the microprocessor controller in memory accessible by the microprocessor controller. The microprocessor controller effectively can also act like a digital clock, so that the date of inquiry need not always be entered. Rather, the date and time needs to only be entered or set once.
After the age of the person is determined, the microprocessor controller then compares the age to a standard age to determine whether the person is authorized to purchase certain goods and/or to attend certain events. Once the microprocessor controller has determined whether or not the person is of sufficient age, the microprocessor controller may trigger a warning device, such as at least one light and/or at least one buzzer, to inform an operator whether or not the person is authorized. The microprocessor controller may also display a message informing the operator of the results of its analysis. The warning device in preferred embodiments is comprised of a first light and a second light, both of which are electrically coupled to the microprocessor controller, and a buzzer, which is also electrically coupled to the microprocessor controller. The first light is preferably red and the second light is preferably green. The microprocessor controller lights the first light and/or sounds the buzzer when the person is not authorized and the microprocessor controller lights the second light when the person is authorized and/or sounds the buzzer. Alternative preferred embodiments use one light, so that the microprocessor controller lights the light and/or sounds the buzzer when the person is authorized or vice versa. Other alternate preferred embodiments may use a first light (e.g., a red light) to signal whether the person was of sufficient age to purchase alcohol and a second light (e.g., a green light) to signal whether the person was of sufficient age to purchase tobacco. As a result, the alternate preferred embodiment that uses two lights to signal authorizations for different reasons is, thus, capable of simultaneously providing immediate authorization information. In preferred embodiments in which only one light is used (or one light for each determination), a blinking light indicates authorization was granted; a non-blinking light indicates authorization was not granted.
Preferred embodiments may also be comprised of a power source (e.g., battery, rechargeable battery, or power transformer mounted to an electrical outlet) to power the magnetic reader, the microprocessor controller, and the warning device. The microprocessor controller may also have a serial data communication port (e.g., RS232 interface) electrically coupled to the microprocessor controller to output the age to a personal computer, electronic cash register, etc. If the magnetic reader reads the additional information pertaining to the person from the magnetic strip or the additional information is otherwise supplied, this information can be outputted along with the age of the person via the serial data communication port.
There are a number of advantages of the preferred processes, systems, and apparatus discussed above. Specifically, the preferred embodiments reduce errors in the computation of a person""s age and in the corresponding authorization of a specific purchase by that person of a restricted item, entrance by that person to a restricted event, participation in a certain activity, or purchase of a specific item or service at a discounted rate. In addition, the information pertaining to a specific purchase or entry can be stored electronically in a personal computer, etc. Also, the use of batteries keep the overall embodiment functional during power failures by the public utility service. In addition, it is possible to use the product in a portable mode with the power transformer disconnected, because the batteries provide temporary power. Consequently, when used as a portable device, preferred embodiments can be used in such environments as a darkened bar.
Other advantages will be explained in greater detail below.